Historypin at FLOW

Post and bottom photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman, top photo from the Hennepin History Museum, used with permission.

Today at FLOW I will lead a historic walking tour at key nodes along West Broadway.  Although to be more accurate, this walking tour is meant more to showcase the Historypin website and smartphone application.  I consider it quite likely that others joining me for the event will know more than I do about connections to our community's past.  And that's quite the point of the exercise; my goal is to raise awareness about both the application and our history, so that our neighborhoods can strengthen those connections.

Between two and three today, I will be at the Broadway and North 2nd Street node.  From four o'clock to five, I will be at the Capri Theater, showing photos along that stretch.  And from five thirty until seven, I will be around Broadway and Emerson.  That node has the most photographs pinned, and should prove to be the most revealing segment.

Ironically, that same stretch shows the main flaw in the Historypin application:  what were once many separate addresses for individual storefronts have now been consolidated into one or two large commercial buildings that take up entire blocks.  Since the app "pins" photos using Google Street View, the pictures are attached to address numbers.  What should appear as a row of continuous buildings instead results in photographs being jumbled together onto one site.  I am working with the folks who created the app to fix this bug.

If people cannot be at the nodes during the scheduled times, I will mark the ground where you can stand and see a Historypin image on your smartphone or tablet.  Simply download the program and you're good to go.  I can also be reached on my cell phone, 952-210-1086, if readers wish to meet up in the middle of a tour.

"H" marks the spot

I hope to show off a great way to connect people to our history, and in turn I look forward to learning more about my own community.  Come and join the fun at FLOW!

Northside Troubadour Dan Hylton Performs at FLOW, Set to Release New Album!

Post and photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

I've had the pleasure of seeing fellow northsider Dan Hylton perform at quite a few events, from the Camden Farmers Market to last year's FLOW, and he even provided ambient background music at the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council's annual dinner last year.  Dan's a great guy, a fellow housing geek, and a darned good musician to boot.  So I jumped at the chance to review his upcoming album, "The Secret of Him," before its August 4 release concert at The Warren.

I had the CD on loop while working on my own FLOW presentation, and it made for great accompanying music.  This by itself is high praise, as I usually write and do other projects in silence.  But since I was focused on other things while giving the album a spin, my first impression wasn't about any particular song but instead about the album's tone.  "Music to listen to while curled up under a blanket on a rainy day" was what kept coming up in the back of my mind.  I thought specifically of two of my favorite such albums, Jonathan Rundman's "Wherever" and Nick Drake's "Pink Moon."  Interestingly enough, both of those albums employ a green/white/gray color scheme.  Rundman, by the way, is a former northsider himself and has done concerts at Papa's Pizza with the Camden School of Music.

The other nice touch is that Hylton chose to include the lyrics.  For someone like me, who is deaf in one ear, lyrics are a tremendous help.  My final play through of the album prior to review was done with the lyrics in front of me as I scribbled impressions of each song.  That started with...

I Want to Be Wrong, but...Flow. Meh.

Post, video, and photos below by the Hawthorne Hawkman.  Photos above contributed.

In the past, I have attended Flow, north Minneapolis' art festival, as a performer in a live chess match, and a hula hooper.  While I did bring my hula hoop with me again this year (you never know when you're going to need one) I approached the 2011 event with the mindset that I would just go and enjoy myself; let the reporting efforts go to one of the other media recording the festival.  And then I was somewhat underwhelmed by it all and that disappointment needs to be expressed.  We can and should do more with Flow than what was achieved this year.

I understand this may put me in the minority, and that people may be unhappy with this post--just like when I try to explain to my fellow sci-fi nerds exactly why I don't like Blade Runner, (I've read and enjoyed the source material, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? if that helps) or when other thirtysomethings find out that Pulp Fiction left me thoroughly unimpressed.

First though, there was plenty I did like about Flow...